Date: 1751

"She addressed herself to him with a familiar air, observing, that she had heard much of his great knowledge, and was come to be a witness of his art, which she desired him to display, in declaring what he knew to be her ruling passion."

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1751

One may meet with an object that disputes the empire of one's heart with a beloved

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1751

Love may reign in the breast

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1751

A beloved may acquire "the most absolute empire over" a lover's soul

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Date: 1751

"For partly the Recommendation of his Person, but chiefly the Profusion of his Expences made her think him a very desireable Lover; and as she saw that his ruling Passion was Vanity, she was too good a Dissembler, and too much a Mistress of her Trade, not to flatter this Weakness for her own Ends."

— Coventry, (William) Francis Walter (1725-1753/4)

Date: 1751

"But sure thy mind was meant the court of love, / Soft as the joys, that yielding virgins move."

— Harman, P.

Date: 1751, 1791

"Some few there are of sordid mould, / Who barter youth and bloom for gold; / Careless with what, or whom they mate, / Their ruling passion's all for state."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: 1751, 1791

"To Fancy's court we strait apply, / And wait the sentence of her eye."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: 1751, 1791

"The passions are a num'rous crowd, / Imperious, positive, and loud: / Curb these licentious sons of strife; / Hence chiefly rise the storms of life: / If they grow mutinous, and rave, / They are thy masters, thou their slave."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)

Date: 1751, 1791

"That Breast, where Honour builds his Throne, / That Breast, which Virtue calls her own."

— Cotton, Nathaniel, the elder (1705-1788)